Crate smallbox [−] [src]

Box dynamically-sized types on stack Requires nightly rust.

Store or return trait-object and closure without heap allocation, and fallback to heap when thing goes too large.

Usage

First, add the following to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
smallbox = "0.2"

Next, add this to your crate root:

extern crate smallbox;

Overview

This crate delivers two core type:

StackBox<T>: Represents a fixed-capacity allocation, and on stack stores dynamically-sized type. The new method on this type allows creating a instance from a concrete type, returning Err(value) if the instance is too large for the allocated region. So far, the fixed-capcity is about four words (4 * sizeof(usize))

SmallBox<T>: Takes StackBox<T> as an varience, and fallback to Box<T> when type T is too large for StackBox<T>.

Example

One of the most obvious uses is to allow returning capturing closures without having to box them.

use smallbox::StackBox;

fn make_closure(s: String) -> StackBox<Fn()->String> {
    StackBox::new(move || format!("Hello, {}", s)).ok().unwrap()
}

let closure = make_closure("world!".to_owned());
assert_eq!(closure(), "Hello, world!");

The other uses is to eliminate heap alloction for small things, only when the object is large enough to allocte. In addition, the inner StackBox<T> or Box<T> can be moved out by explicitely pattern matching on SmallBox<T>.

use smallbox::SmallBox;

let tiny: SmallBox<[u64]> = SmallBox::new([0; 2]);
let big: SmallBox<[u64]> = SmallBox::new([1; 8]);

assert_eq!(tiny.len(), 2);
assert_eq!(big[7], 1);

match tiny {
    SmallBox::Stack(val) => assert_eq!(*val, [0; 2]),
    _ => unreachable!()
}

match big {
    SmallBox::Box(val) => assert_eq!(*val, [1; 8]),
    _ => unreachable!()
}

Structs

StackBox

On-stack allocation for dynamically-sized type.

Enums

SmallBox

Stack allocation with heap fallback